In a political phenomenon that few at Westminster could ever have predicted, Corbynmania is rocking the UK. Jeremy Corbyn is so hot right now, and it's not just a phenomenon limited to the kids. Having smashed expectations in the election, the Labour leader is now the British public’s preference for prime minister. He's so hot he's overshadowing every other act at Glastonbury (although admittedly it's not a vintage year).

Jeremy Corbyn, the guy who wanted to autograph apples, who wore a jumper his mum knitted him on television, the guy pictured with marrows, whose hobbies include a love of manhole covers, is now the public's favourite choice for PM. That Jeremy Corbyn.

Partly, of course, it’s down to just how unpopular Theresa May has become after an election campaign which exposed her weakness as a retail politician. Corbyn is a born campaigner, a man more comfortable on the street than in the Palace of Westminster. Jeremy is a man of market stalls and public gatherings, a politician who has spent his lifetime with a megaphone in his hand. Even in Westminster, though, Corbyn’s political ascendancy has given him a new-found confidence in the chamber, and the backing of a once-mistrusting parliamentary party. Meanwhile, Theresa May clings on to power because the Conservative party look past her and see a political abyss.

YouGov and The Times have discovered that some 35 per cent of us think that Corbyn would make the "best prime minister" where only 34 per cent would pick May. Theresa May, the woman who began 2017 with the insurmountable lead in British politics, hailed as the second iron lady, is a dead woman walking at the head of a zombie government. Corbyn, whose leadership of the party was seen by many as a national joke, is the man of the hour.

How did Jeremy Corbyn get to this position?

Corbyn has several political advantages: his anti-war, anti-austerity values are chiming with a public feeling the pinch, and with a generation exhausted by unpopular foreign interventions foisted upon the UK by leaders who want to buddy up to America. The UK has shown itself to be susceptible to appeal from anti-establishment campaigners like Nigel Farage and Jeremy Corbyn: it doesn’t matter that both men are career politicians, because they don’t act like all the others. When compared with “strong and stable” Theresa May whose lackluster, repetitive campaign was her undoing, Corbyn seems fresh and unrehearsed. Where the Conservatives peddled fear about Corbyn, Jeremy gave voters hope. Even Conservative attacks on Corbyn have been blunted.

One of the Conservatives’ major criticisms of Corbyn – his closeness to the IRA – has been fatally undermined in the eyes of the public by Conservative willingness to get into bed with the DUP. Ultimately, though, many were bored of character attacks, and it seems an ever-increasing number of us are prepared to take a punt on something different. Corbyn, who wanted to spend more on police before Manchester, who spoke up for the poor before Grenfell, seems to many to offer timely answers to the problems the country faces.

Be in no doubt, Corbyn is different. Radically different. Corbyn is a career protestor, a man at ease in television studios because he speaks his mind. His teflon-like qualities have been hardened as the public has grown tired of attacks on his past. This leaves him all but invulnerable to scandal. His devoted supporters see every attempt to hold Corbyn responsible for his past words or actions as a “smear” and they are increasingly hostile to Corbyn’s critics. He is in these ways a less-successful British Donald Trump, a man whose supporters are vocal ambassadors for his brand online.

The Conservatives will look at the most recent poll with horror. YouGov were far more accurate during the general election than other polling companies, and this slip in May’s popularity shows the risks the party faces. Do the Conservatives stick with their unpopular leader, or take the gamble on an election against Jeremy Corbyn at the peak of his popularity? The longer the Conservatives push on with Brexit, the more the detail of our exit will divide both their own party and the public. As the party in government deals with a deeply unpopular Donald Trump, and dealing with the fallout from Manchester, London and Grenfell, Jeremy Corbyn can continue to address gatherings, continue to campaign for the next general election. Whether it’s later this year or in five, there’s no sign of his popularity waning any time soon.